When We Go Back Again (Mason Brothers Book #1)

Chapter 5

EDEN

“What do you want to do today, Joey?”

“Go see the horses!” He jumps up in his chair at the breakfast table with his arms stretched up in the air.

“Well, mister,” I put my hand under his arms, pick him up, and place him onto the ground. “As exciting as that sounds, Carl has to work with his horses today, so I’m not sure that we’ll be able to go visit him. What about something else?”

His little face frowns, “Aww, but I love the horses!”

“I know me too. He has to work though, okay? Plus we get to live here with the horses so we don’t have to go visit them every day.”

“Oh fine. Can we go find a park?”

“I think we can do that. I bet we can even go check out the park that I played at when I was a kid.”

“They had parks back then?”

“Joseph!” I try to suppress a laugh, “I’m not THAT old. Go get your shoes on! But wash your hands first, they’re messy from breakfast.”

“Okay, mommy!”

I put together a few bags of snacks because knowing Joey in about an hour he’ll start to claim he’s dying of hunger, and add them into a tote bag with a couple of bottles of water. I still have a habit of overpacking, so before leaving I make sure I have hand sanitizer, wet wipes, and a change of clothes, just in case. I was just about to go check on Joey when I hear him running down the hallway and almost crashing right into me. 

“Whoa boy! No running in the house, okay?”

“But mommy I have soooooooooooo much energy.”

I wrap my arms around him and kiss the top of his shaggy head, “Oh, I know you do. Let’s go burn off some of that energy so you don’t drive Grandma and Carl crazy.”

“We get into my car and drive down Main Street to get to the park. It takes about ten minutes to go from the house to the park, but it is a nice scenic drive. My eyes catch The Mason Jar while we drive by and I’m transported back in time to Friday night. I still couldn’t believe Fletcher was living in Glenwood Springs still. He looked so good. I was tempted to go back Saturday and Sunday, but I thought that would seem a bit much. I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide my attraction to Fletcher and I knew he was into me too, but I needed to make sure I didn’t come off as too pathetic.

Plus, the fact was that less than two months ago I was a married woman living with my husband and son. If I was going to test the waters with Fletcher, I didn’t want it to feel like a rebound. I wanted it to be the right time so that any potential feelings we had for each other would be true and free. This meant focusing on getting Joseph settled into his new life and worrying about a relationship later.

I find a spot in front of the park and I hardly get the door open before Joey is pulling at his seatbelt, trying to get out. I open his door and give him the needed assistance and he jumps out and if off towards the swings like a bat out of hell. I grab my bag and start making my way down the path to the area where I can sit on some benches.

Being a Tuesday, the park is pretty dead. There are some teenagers playing basketball in the corner, probably enjoying those last few weeks of summer break and then about half a dozen other kids. I kind of hoped that Joey would try to play with them on the playground, but he keeps to himself on the swings. He doesn’t have that much experience playing with kids his own age. Back in San Diego we pretty much kept to ourselves and he wasn’t old enough for school yet. I wanted to put him into something this year for preschool, but Caleb insisted that he didn’t need to be in school yet.